The term hypnosis often leads to visions of willing participants engaging in outrageous and embarrassing stunts at the command of a hypnotist. But while this practice of humiliating participants on stage…

Reflexology is a form of manual therapy based on the principle that specific locations on the feet, hands and ears have connections to the rest of the body. By applying pressure to these locations using…

Calendula (marigold), lavendar and rosemary are used by practitioners of Western herbal medicine.
Smoobs/Flickr
November 7, 2012

PANACEA OR PLACEBO – A weekly series assessing the evidence behind complementary and alternative medicines. Herbs have been used for therapeutic purposes in most cultures for hundreds and even thousands…

Natural does not necessarily equate to harmless. Nor does conventional equate to unnatural.
Flickr/wine me up
November 5, 2012

One of the most misleading myths of modern medicine is that conventional cancer doctors reject “natural” therapies in favour of artificial or “unnatural” cancer treatments. This myth has contributed to…

There is no convincing evidence that the therapy works.
Cafemama
Oktober 31, 2012

PANACEA OR PLACEBO – A weekly series assessing the evidence behind complementary and alternative medicines. Aromatherapy is based on the idea that aromatic substances, usually the essential oils of plants…

The idea of Chi (life force) flowing through meridians has an allegorical quality and the appeal of an ancient provenance.
jacqueline/Flickr
Oktober 30, 2012

A recent, rather flattering, article on acupuncture on this website holds a mirror to a broader problem in the world of acupuncture research. A problem that goes to the heart of the most fundamental scientific…

Most people see chiropractors for spine pain or other musculoskeletal conditions.
Michael Dorausch
Oktober 24, 2012

PANACEA OR PLACEBO – A weekly series assessing the evidence behind complementary and alternative medicines. Colonic therapy – also known as colonic irrigation, colonic hydrotherapy or a high enema – is…

Modern research techniques are looking for evidence of efficacy for this 2,500-year-old practice.
Peter Fasano
Oktober 10, 2012

PANACEA OR PLACEBO – A weekly series assessing the evidence behind complementary and alternative medicines. Acupuncture has been practiced in China for over 2,500 years. During the reign of Emperor Huang…

Some of the techniques that form the armamentarium of myotherapy are supported by some positive evidence.
o5com
Oktober 3, 2012

PANACEA OR PLACEBO – A weekly series assessing the evidence behind complementary and alternative medicines. Myotherapy was developed by American Bonnie Prudden in the 1970s as a system of treating painful…

Universities should be protected as sites where unpopular ideas and theories can be examined.
uonottingham
Juli 16, 2012

Medicine has long been the subject of vigorous debate about the control of social resources. The formation of modern medicine in the mid-19th century was itself the result of a century long fight for legitimacy…

Pills made from “wild krill” (apparently so much better for you than domestic krill)? Antioxidants from exotic plants, chlorophyll or the “Sicilian Blood Orange”? Promises of extra vitality, vim and vigour…

Could a Canadian-style class action dent the credibility of homeopathy in Australia?
Flickr/kh1234567890
Mei 22, 2012

One hundred years of rigorous scientific research hasn’t dented the faith of adherents of homeopathy. The complementary therapy is still centred on the notion that water has a therapeutic “memory” and…

It’s good news indeed that the Federal Budget is providing the chief medical officer with a million dollars to review what works and what doesn’t in the world of “natural” medicine. Professor Chris Baggoley…

There are polarising views on the subject of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM). This website has recently published numerous article about the efficacy and regulation of CAM, the placebo effect…

Most of traditional healing practices are based on intuitive principles of diseases involving the imbalance of elemental qualities. For the ancient Greeks and Romans, whose systems of traditional healing…

The answer is not more rigid insistence on the primacy of biomedicine, in spite of its great contribution to saving lives.
CALI.org
Maret 22, 2012

More heat than light is being generated by the resurgence of the debate on orthodox evidence-based medicine versus the so-called pseudo-science of alternative therapies. Unfortunately the voices of medical…

Treatments should be based on how well they make people feel rather than how scientific or traditional the medicine is.
By Wikidudeman
Maret 15, 2012

Homeopathy is a combination of tradition, art and a science that has been used for centuries. Does it really matter if its effect is placebo if it makes people feel better and regain good health? And why…

The ethics of homeopathy was once again thrust into the spotlight yesterday after a leaked draft of the National Health and Medical Research Council’s statement on homeopathy revealed the agency was considering…